North American Scarlet Pimpernel Gardens for Primrose Family Weeds

Summary: Creeping jenny, fairy candelabra and garden yellow loosestrife like cyclamens, primroses and shooting stars in North American scarlet pimpernel gardens.

Swedish-born botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) described the scarlet pimpernel in 1753; scarlet pimpernel, southwest Eastern Island, Midway Atoll, March 28, 2015: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

The Primulaceae family of primrose-related herbs assumes its greatest worldwide diversity in north temperate regions where North American scarlet pimpernel gardens accommodate such beloved ornamental relatives as cyclamens, primroses and shooting stars.

Scarlet pimpernel, an annual, biennial or short-lived perennial from European and Mediterranean countries, brooks no opposition from cereals, oilseeds and vegetables or sandy soils and turf. It contains saponin, a toxic compound that counts among poisoned casualties calves, dogs, horses and sheep and that creates lather for detergent and fire extinguisher foam. It draws no weed designations in North America where Canada, Mexico and the United States likewise do not declare the native, primrose-related fairy candelabra a weed.

Weed designations emerge as possibilities since its Eurasian relatives, creeping jenny in Connecticut and Massachusetts and garden yellow loosestrife in Connecticut and Washington, endure such status.

Threadlike roots furnish below-ground support for the scarlet pimpernel's above-ground dark green, diamond-, ellipse-, oval- or triangle-shaped, shiny embryonic leaves, called cotyledons, and pale green stems.

The cotyledon grows to 0.04- to 0.24-inch (1- to 6-millimeter) lengths and to 0.04- to 0.12-inch (1- to 3-millimeter) widths in North American scarlet pimpernel gardens. Mature scarlet pimpernels commonly have heights of less than 5.91 inches (15 centimeters) in a range from 3.94 to 15.75 inches (10 to 40 centimeters) tall. Scarlet pimpernel, scientifically called Anagallis arvensis (laugh of cultivated fields), is tolerant of brief exposures to temperatures down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius).

The somewhat shade-tolerate sun-lover juggles horizontally spreading and vertically straight looks with four-angled to square, hairless stems branching from the base and rooting fibrously at nodes.

Egg-shaped to elliptical, 0.19- to 0.98-inch- (5- to 25-millimeter-) long, 0.16- to 0.71-inch- (4- to 18-millimeter-) wide leaves keep to opposite or three-whorled positions around stems.

Mature, smooth-margined foliage lacks hair on the black- to purple-dotted undersides and on the upper-sides and, when stalkless, lets the foliar base clasp the stem's sides. The biochemistry of 0.39- to 1.97-inch- (1- to 5-centimeter-) long floral stalks mingles with foliage at stalk birthplaces in the axil unions of leaves and stems. A phototropic biochemistry nourishes blue, brick red, pink, purple, scarlet or white flowers, each 0.32 to 0.55 inches (8 to 14 millimeters) across, on scarlet pimpernels.

March- through August-blooming North American scarlet pimpernel gardens offer observations of one pistil, five petals, five stamens and five sepals from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Awl-like, green, 0.12- to 0.19-inch- (3- to 5-millimeter-) long sepals, blue filament-haired yellow stamens and 0.16- to 0.39-inch- (4- to 10-millimeter-) long petals provide additional color.

North American scarlet pimpernel gardens quit flowering stages for the fruiting stage of many-seeded, nodding, round capsules 0.12 to 0.24 inches (3 to 6 millimeters) across. The production of dull brown to black, elliptical, fine-pitted, three-angled, 0.05-inch- (1.3-millimeter-) long seeds ranges per plant from 900 in the wild to 250,000 in greenhouses. Germination starts six to seven days after the breakdown of water-soluble inhibitors at soil temperatures of 35.6 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 20 degrees Celsius).

Soil-viable seeds turn scarlet pimpernel, also called bird's-eye, common pimpernel, eyebright, poison chickweed, poisonweed, poor man's weather-glass, red chickweed, shepherd's dock and wink-a-peep, into 10-year plans.

Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) chick and scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) are, respectively, native and non-native participants in the landscape near Cargo Pier, Sand Island, Midway Atoll, March 29, 2015: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

scarlet pimpernel, southwest Eastern Island, Midway Atoll, March 28, 2015: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/25269062405/

Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) chick near scarlet pimpernel; near Cargo Pier, Sand Island, Midway Atoll, March 29, 2015: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/25177125571/

For further information:

"Anagallis arvensis L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26400001

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Anagallis arvensis." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 148. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358167

Modzelevich, Martha. "Anagallis arvensis, Scarlet Pimpernel, Shepherd's Barometer, Poor Man's Weatherglass, Hebrew: מרגנית השדה, Arabic: عين القط." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Anagallisarvensis_page.htm